Art Gallery of New South Wales by Zahie Wahhab

Yesterday (18/08/22), the year 9 and 10 elective students including myself embarked on a scenic and educational excursion to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. At 9:20am, the forty-odd students boarded a bustling train at Minto Station, where the group remained for 50 minutes, before beginning a brisk picturesque walk from St James station to the gallery.

Upon arriving, the students and I were stunned to see that the building itself was a work of art, with the exterior reflecting the 19th century gothic architecture style. The spacious interior adorned with hundreds of paintings on the walls was something truly mesmerising. The trip brought incessant fun among my peers, achieved via winding through the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize finalists collection for hours as well as the permanent gallery collection and the new Asian art exhibit, which opened merely 10 days prior to our visit. This environment was social but oddly eerie as the audience were stagnant and silent in reflecting and quietly critiquing every work, whilst attempting to expose its complex meaning. The enigmatic abstract contemporary art left us puzzled, with truly ardent students reading the small descriptions beside each work, divulging the secrets of the artist, their inspiration and expressive mind.

Many of the works in the gallery, in particular the permanent collection, were colossal, with 19th century paintings like Edouard Detallie’s “Vive l’Empereur!” having dimensions of 512.5 x 445 cm. The sumptuous lustre on the works was hypnotising in itself, giving an impression of professionalism and talent. The fastidious nature of the artists, whose attention to detail resulted in their unbelievable and captivating art, was something that I found truly fascinating, leaving me to contemplate on the time and years of developed skill that would be required to make a work seem truly alive. The atmosphere was subdued as the audience was quietly reflecting on the art, however, inside we were utterly ebullient in experiencing the emotional lamenting or joy of the composer, forever trapped in time through art.

The artists featured in the gallery whom I had the pleasure of experiencing yesterday was one of the most pivotal elements of the trip. To my amazement, the gallery contained works from some of the greatest artists in history, such as Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet. To be standing completely motionless in awe but ineffably energetic in the presence of the fibres and oils over hundreds of years old, crafted and utilised by some of the most famous international artists in history made my own talents seem to be non-existent. Several works of famous Australian artists such as Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts were featured in the gallery, including the original Streeton work of “Fire’s on” (1891),  which was studied earlier in the year by the year 9 students.

Between these memorable hours engaging in the expressive works of truly gifted artists, lunch was enjoyed in a warm, mildly windy park, sitting nonchalantly on the grass or at a bench in the city. Subsequent to stepping outside the spacious, embellished gallery to proceed to catch the train at quarter to 2, the mood of the gallery seemed to linger in the air for several hours as myself and peers were still digesting the glorious nature of the New South Wales Art Gallery that the visual art students and I had the privilege of experiencing. This will truly be an excursion to remember.